A new global report has warned that humans are living through a “microplastic storm”, with constant exposure to plastic particles from overlooked sources. These range from hospitals and children’s toys to paint and even emerging climate technologies.
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Funded by the Plastic Soup Foundation, a Netherlands-based non-profit and The Flotilla Foundation, the study Exploring Everyday Microplastic Exposures, concluded that human exposure to microplastics is continuous and embedded across modern life, after assessing over 350 peer-reviewed studies.
Researchers mapped microplastic release across five major categories including outdoor sources, indoor environments, children’s products, healthcare, personal care, and food and drink. The findings suggest that exposure is not limited to polluted oceans or beaches but occurs within homes, schools and hospitals.
Microplastics are tiny plastic particles smaller than 5 millimeters in size, resulting either from industrial manufacturing or from the breakdown of larger plastic items such as bottles, packaging, and synthetic textiles.
The report’s author, Heather Leslie, highlighted that microplastic exposure stems not only from visible plastic waste but also from the materials built into everyday systems and products.
Leslie is a leading scientist who specialises in plastic and chemical pollution and is known for being the first to discover microplastics in the human bloodstream in 2022, together with her research team at Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam.
“This is not just about waste or environmental pollution. It is about the materials that manufacturers have built into our world, and the particles they continuously release into the spaces we live in,” she said.
Among the report’s warnings is evidence that emerging climate interventions could make microplastic exposure significantly worse.
It highlights stratospheric aerosol injection, a form of solar geoengineering being explored in countries including the United Kingdom and the United States which is capable of dispersing vast quantities of particles high into the atmosphere.
“Multiple patents already exist describing the release of particles including micro-sized polymeric particles at altitudes of up to 20 km in the atmosphere, creating a potentially ‘tera scale’ source of intentionally added airborne microplastics and fallout,” it said, noting that rainfall already contains particles with wear and tear from car tyres and synthetic textiles contributing to atmospheric pollution that eventually settles back to earth.
Hospitals are identified as a significant source of exposure. Microplastic fallout in operating rooms has been recorded at up to 9,258 particles per square metre during a single shift. Medical devices including cardiac catheters, silicone breast implants, orthopaedic implants and intravenous fluid systems have also been cited as sources that inadvertently introduce particles into the body.
The report estimates that premature babies fed intravenously in neonatal units could receive up to 115 microplastic particles over a 72-hour period from infusion circuits alone and infant formula contains up to 17 microplastic particles per gram, with packaging types playing a role in releasing the observed microplastics.
Children’s products such as building bricks and play mats were also found to release common plastics including polyethylene terephthalate (PET), polypropylene, polyethylene and polyvinyl chloride (PVC) into indoor environments. Because children breathe more air per kilogramme of body weight and ingest more dust during play, their exposure levels are proportionally higher than adults, the report suggests.
Among the unexpected sources of exposure, indoor paint stood out with a single coat applied across 100 square metres may contain between 17 and 68 quadrillion polymeric particles, which can be released as surfaces wear down or are scraped. This is primarily due to plastic being a major component of many paint products.
Overall, the findings affirm that modern human lifestyles feature an all-encompassing exposure to microplastics due to a wide variety of plastic applications releasing particles.
While the causal links between microplastics and disease are still in the early stages of research, Leslie noted that mapping exposure pathways is a critical first step towards understanding potential health risks.
The global plastic production volume is projected to hit 1.3 billion tonnes by 2060, growing by 400 million tonnes per year, which increases microplastic exposures. These exposures require continued monitoring and research to inform decision making on multiple levels, she said.
Leslie urged policymakers to adopt precautionary measures by accelerating health impact research and prioritising mitigation to microplastics rather than waiting for decades for large data sets of evidence to form before making decisions.
“From systems thinking guides, we know that changing the rules of the game could be highly effective in designing microplastic exposure out of product systems, making high level policy making one of the important paths to lasting change,” she said, emphasising that humanity can break-free from particles exposure when plastics are kept out of product design.
Likewise, consumers are also advised to switch to plastic-free alternatives and reduce reliance on synthetic products to help lower personal exposure as immediate next steps.
